Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

OARS Annual River Cleanup 2016

OARS: Poster listing sponsors.
Click on photos to enlarge.

The OARS 30th Annual River Cleanup took place on September 17,
2016. Teams of an estimated 200+ volunteers were assigned locations along the
Assabet, Sudbury and Concord rivers. In Maynard, nearly 30 high
school students were part of the effort, their presence organized by MaynardHigh School science teacher Rochelle
Lerner.

At the post-event pizza celebration, dirtied and tired
workers were joined by U.S. Congressional Representative Niki Tsongas and State
Representative Kate Hogan, who had both been making a morning's effort to visit
several of the day's river events. Tsongas and Hogan spoke to how efforts of
organizations such as OARS (Organization for the Assabet, Sudbury
and ConcordRivers) have made such a difference to
our state's waterways. They also thanked the students for this year's service
and charged them with the need to give something back to their community and
country wherever their lives take them.

This appeared to be a watershed year (pun intended), as
Maynard had more volunteers than trash to be removed from the river. Past years
had yielded as many as 100 car and truck tires, plus bicycles, shopping carts,
and tons of iron pipe, scrap metal, broken pottery, old carpets and
miscellaneous junk. This year, only two tires, one bicycle, and an estimated
total of less than one ton of glass, metal, plastic, broken furniture, etc. Not
much in the way of newer stuff such as aluminum cans or plastic bottles. Clearly,
less and less is being thrown into the river each year. Hurrah!

Elmo (from Sesame Street), here posed kicking a soccer ball, was
salvaged from the river, as was hundreds of pounds of miscellaneous trash.

Each year the finds from the river include intact glass
bottles with a bit of history. A Coca-Cola bottle, volume 6.5 ounces, with
"LOWELL"
inscribed on the bottom, was dated to the mid-1950s. In 2013 the find was an
amber glass pint bottle embossed with the words CALDWELL'S RUM and the image of a
three-masted sailing ship alongside a dock. The company had been started by
Alexander Caldwell in 1790. Markings on the bottom signified that the bottle had
been made for Caldwell's
Rum in 1953 by the Anchor Hocking Glass Company. The oldest find to date is a
one cup size bottle embossed with TURNER CENTRE SYSTEM, representing a dairy
bottling and home delivery company active 100 years ago.

Trash collected by the students.

This year's find was a plain glass bottle with NEW ENGLAND
VINEGAR WORKS embossed on the bottom, no other markings. Turns out NEVW began
its life in 1865 in Somerville
as the Standard Vinegar Company. Arthur Rowse bought the company in 1900,
changed the name to New England Vinegar Works in 1907, then moved it to Littleton in 1930 to be closer to Massachusetts' apple orchards. Some time
around then or a bit before, he created the name Veryfine, after bringing in
pasteurization equipment and going into the apple juice business.

Veryfine and its popular bottled water brand Fruit2O
remained a family owned business until 2004, when it was sold to Kraft. As part
of the deal, the Rowse family insisted that Kraft keep any of the 400 employees
who wanted to stay. Approximately fifteen million dollar from the sale was used
to pay bonuses to employees; those who had been there more than 20 years got a
bonus equal to a full year's pay. Kraft sold Veryfine to Sunny Delight in 2007.
Sunny Delight closed the Littleton
facility at the end of 2015 while continuing to make the Veryfine and Fruit2O
brands at other sites. The Veryfine label has a banner that reads "Since
1865." Let's just call that a stretch.

As to the means by which thousands upon thousands of glass
bottles ended up in the stretch of the Assabet as it wended it way through
Maynard, think bridges and backyards, and the opinion that anything disposed
into the river went "away." This is not a new problem. From the 1913
Annual Report of the State Board of Health "The Assabet River has at
various times been seriously polluted in different parts of its course, the
most serious condition in recent years below Maynard where the river receives
sewage and manufacturing waste from a very large woolen mill and a considerable
quantity of sewage also from the town... the river continues to be
objectionable in appearance and odor, especially below Maynard."